Peoria Police Chief Loren Marion III announced earlier this week that he will retire on Jan. 22, capping a 26-year career with the Peoria Police Department and nearly three years as its leader. Marion recently reflected on his tenure with WCBU reporter Joe Deacon.
Joe Deacon: What prompted your decision to retire at this time?
Chief Loren Marion: So, I have 26 years on, and this is something that my wife and I had talked about previously and we talked about it again in January. It was like, “Well, let’s see how this year looks, you know, and see what happens during the year.”
And, as you know, it goes without saying this has been a pretty hectic year. So once the fall hit, I thought about it, I prayed about it and it’s like, “You know what, it’s time.” Whenever people say that you’ll know when it’s time, I’m telling you, it really does hit you and it’s like, “You know what, yep. Now’s the time.”
How have you seen law enforcement, and the City of Peoria itself, change over your 26 years with the department?
Marion: I think the biggest change is technology. It is crazy with the way that technology has improved so much. I mean, we’re basically carrying computers in our hand when we have our cell phone, you know. And I remember back in 1994, when I was in the car they had the MDTs, the mobile data terminals, a really small, little computer that was in the car. Now with the MDCs, mobile data computers, you’ve got an actual computer in the car and it’s got a scanner, a paper printer … and just the technology is crazy nowadays. So I think that’s the biggest thing.
But what we can’t lose sight of is – what I did back in 1994, and really 1995 by the time I got out of the (police) academy and on my own was – the way that we police, meaning (that) when we interact with the community, we have to have the mentality of treating others the way that you want to be treated. My concern with technology enhancing so much is that it’s somewhat easy to lose sight of, or the younger generation aren’t as good at it as what the older generations are, interacting with people; you know what I mean? Because everything is at their hand and they don’t have to talk to people that much. But in law enforcement, you still have to communicate with people.
What strides or improvements have been made by the department during your tenure that you’re proudest of, and what improvements do you think are still needed?
A couple of things when I first took over that I really wanted to work on was the building of the police and community relations, so community policing, and developing an officer wellness program. I’ll circle back to those, but I also want to bring up a couple things I’m proud of. We were able to get implemented a body camera project. Everyone from myself, the chief of police, on down to the patrol officer level, everyone has a body camera if they’re in uniform. So I was really glad to see that come to fruition, because there were some hurdles that we had to go over, and we’re also ahead of some of the agencies across the country, you know. So we’ve had body cameras since the fall of 2018, so that was important.
Also the CALEA (Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) accreditation. We became fully accredited in May of 2019 and – I have to preface this – this is the work of my staff. It’s nothing that I personally did alone; it’s with my command staff and the employees, the commissioned officers and civilian employees, that made this happen. So I’m really proud of all the employees and working together as a team.
The community policing portion of it, I feel that we are moving forward, we’re moving in the right direction. We were able to add a fifth resident officer this past year down on Madison. We opened a resource center up on Wisconsin, opened a resource center in the Harrison (Homes). We have the Northwoods Mall substation during my tenure, and we created what’s called a Community Policing Sergeant position last January. So, not to say there’s not work to be done because there is; but I feel that we are definitely moving the needle in the right direction when it comes to community policing.
If I could throw out two examples of that: If you remember back over the summer, the two young boys that were robbed at the lemonade stand, and this was an officer’s self-initiative that got this whole thing started. So an officer and the Community Policing Sergeant came up with the idea of saying, “hey, these young kids just got robbed; they had a traumatic experience. Let’s see what we can do to do a fundraiser for them and try to help them out and give them the confidence to stay at it.” So we were able to raise some money and we went and gave it to the kids and that was a really good feeling – and again going back to the staff, that was the employees that did it. So that makes me feel really good to know that the employees are coming up with those types of ideas and the mindset that they have.
Then the most recent case was the young boy that was hit by a car on North Knoxville, and the traffic officer that investigated that – again, on his own, self-initiated – came up with the idea of asking for donations from the officers to be able to get him a gaming station. We were able to raise enough money and we went and presented it to him and, man, it was just awesome to see the look on his face and his excitement. But again going back, that was the officers that came up with the idea. So, when I say that I feel that we are focusing more on the community, those are just a couple of examples and there are several more I can go into detail on. But those are just a few examples on that end.
So that was my first thing; then my second thing was overall officer wellness. I wanted to implement an officer wellness program, and we were able to do that. We have a peer-to-peer program, and what that means is officers at the patrol officer level or at the officer level rank, I should say, are trained to deal with officers that come to them and may be struggling with some issues, whether it’s personal or work related. And then they know how to guide them in the right direction to get them the help they need.
Because a lot of times, and let’s face it, somebody that’s having a personal issue – we’ll use that as an example – they may be reluctant to go to their supervisor and say, “Hey, you know, can you help me out here Sarge? I’m having this type of issue.” They would more so go toward another officer and confide in them. So we’ve started the peer-to peer-program, and then I also started a chaplain program. So we have chaplains from many different denominations that come in; COVID has really put a wrench in it, but they come in (and) they interact with the officers and get to know them on a personal level. And (it’s) almost, not a counselor per se, but they’re there for the officers to talk to.
You mentioned how challenging this whole year has been with COVID-19. How difficult has policing been in the past year with the pandemic and other issues that have come to the forefront on the broader stage?
Marion: I tell you what, there’s so many firsts for us this year that in my 26 years and – my command staff, one of the captains, he has 42 working on 43 years, one has almost 30 years, another one has 28 years – and all of us, (it’s) the first time we’ve ever had to deal with a pandemic. You know, we have the plans in place that, you know, it’s there: “In case of emergency break glass and grab this plan.” But we had to tweak the plan a lot because in reality, when you start looking at things in real time what you have down on paper doesn’t necessarily work. So we had to come up with a lot of new ideas and ways to adjust.
So that was one, and then the civil unrest: You know, right now the fracture between the police and community on the relationship, and going back to when I first took over – it’ll be three years in February, because if you take my interim time (starting in) February of 2018 and then I was appointed in November of 2018; so that nine months I was the acting chief, which to me I count that towards my time because I was responsible for it – so you know, we’ve been working on that for the past few years. And again, not saying that we don’t need to continue to improve, but (I’m) proud of the community and the work that the officers have done.
We didn’t see a lot of the issues that we saw across the country. So we dealt with that, and then we did have a civil unrest for a couple of days and the officers responded professionally and well. And I think the other side of it was the community responding in a positive way of saying, “Hey, you know, that’s not the way to do this.” If you want to contest something or protest something, there’s a way to do it and to do it peacefully. So that was another first, so there were a lot of firsts this past year.
Apart from the difficulty of dealing with the pandemic, what have been the biggest challenges or obstacles that you’ve faced, either as chief or in your entire tenure with the department?
Marion: Probably over this past year it has been the budget stuff. The city – after about the first month of COVID – we found out we’re (facing a) $53 million budget deficit, so we had to do a lot of work budget-wise. Thankfully, the police department (only) lost seven commissioned positions and one civilian position. If you look at where we’re at now, right now my authorized strength is 222. But looking back to 2009-2010, we were up to 255 officers. So we’ve had to do a lot more with less, and I cannot be more proud of the officers and the way that they have adjusted to that and the work that they’ve done.
An excerpt of WCBU's interview.
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